Nalaka Gunawardene is a science writer and media watcher. He writes a blog on media and society. This article is adapted and expanded from the author’s panel remarks made during the OUR Media 6 international conference held in Sydney, Australia, from 9 to 13 April 2007 and was first published on Media Helping Media. On […]

A.Vaitheeswaran In 1984 (remember George Orwell’s Animal Farm?), in an interview given to Anita Pratap of India Today (popular monthly news magazine published in New Delhi), Veluppillai Pirapakaran admitted that he was a flaming fan of Clint Eastwood and watches his films to get clues for daring guerilla attacks against political opponents and Sri Lankan […]

The plight of the Sri Lankan tea plantation worker is a well known issue in the country, and even though the law now grants them with full citizenship rights, the real story is that these rights are very often not realised. Plantation workers are mainly Tamils of Indian origin who were brought to the island […]

In this article I explore two issues. One, the murder of Don Bolles in America and the other, the recent virulent verbal attack by the Defense Secretary against Champika Liyanaarachchi, Editor of the Daily Mirror, on the 17th of April. The first section is in essence a paean for investigative journalism that’s instructive for those […]

Reproduced with the kind permission of the author, and first published in the Hindustan Times. The flipside of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka PK Balachandran Kattankudy (Eastern Sri Lanka), April 24, 2007 Islamic fundamentalism in Kattankudy in the Eastern Sri Lankan district of Batticaloa, is multifaceted. It has both regressive and progressive aspects, though to […]

The infamous telephone call by the Defence Secretary to the Editor of the Daily Mirror and its fall out is most revealing of the times we live in and the regime we live under.Ã‚Â Whilst the defenders of the Defence Secretary’s actions contest the abusive and threatening nature of the call, they leave unanswered the […]

Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario, Canada, submitted this article to Groundviews. It was first published in the Globe and Mail on 4th April 2007. To honour the memory of Kethesh Loganathan and others assassinated before him, we can’t allow the world’s indifference to continue Kethesh Loganathan was my friend. The last meeting I had […]

An article sent to Groundviews by Rajan Philips, that is slightly revised from an earlier version published in the media in Sri Lanka recently. Newspaper reports have given prominence to the latest Peace Confidence Index (PCI) survey carried out in February 2007, by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). The media reports have highlighted that […]

While meditation may appear to be irrelevant in times of political and social unrest, there are some who believe that this ancient practice could contribute towards transforming violent conflicts, such as the one that has been burdening the people of Sri Lanka for decades. By changing the individual consciousness, those who participate in meditative exercises […]

The AI campaign Ã¢Â€Â˜Play by the Rules’ is a trailblazer (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/lka-020407-petition-eng), in marketing terms AI must be exultant with the publicity that it has received globally and especially in Sri Lanka. For a campaign of this nature nothing is negative publicity and so counter pressure in the form of agitated Sri Lankan government officials and […]

Ã¢Â€ÂœThe SLFP, and the millions who support it, will never be a party to robbing the people of Sri Lanka of their sovereignty.Ã¢Â€Â Lakshman Kadirgamar, 4 November 2003 It is only through a willing suspension of disbelief that one expects anything genuinely progressive from the proposals the SLFP will submit to the APRC in early […]

The website preview feature on Groundviews, powered by Snap Shots, is now enhanced with a bigger preview screen. Hovering on a link such as this results in a pop-up window with a picture of the webpage the link points to. If you find this feature particularly annoying, you can easily turn off the feature by […]

Bear with me and read the following carefully: “The problems of the Tamil community are best known to the Tamils than any others. Any solution to our problems put forward by us should be taken into consideration by the other two communities – the Muslims and the Sinhalese. Furthermore the Tamils problems must have a […]

Recently, I noticed an Q&A style article titled “India Is Colonising Itself” by Arundhati Roy and Shoma Chaudhuri. I thought the first Q and A was very interesting, and perhaps parts of it are applicable to Sri Lanka. So, I have cut and pasted it below, and look forward to any comments about “we’ve begun […]

Archives

About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka...Free media at it's very best!"

All content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.